Why Don't I Just Go Ahead And Frame That Debate In A Way That Guarantees I'll Win?

Clay Shirky's latest piece, which points out that offline colleges are broken, has been attracting a fair bit of attention. What isn't is the way he and others are trying to frame the debate, which goes something like, "Yeah, MOOCs aren't perfect, but have you actually looked at what most non-elite colleges actually offer?" This boils down to, "Our bad is slightly less bad than their bad," but blithely ignores the fact that something much better than either exists. As Anu Partanen pointed out over a year ago, though, that "something better" would demand some uncomfortable soul-searching...